We currently have 4x50 mins for both KS3 & 4. Moving (hopefully) to an extra 50 mins with Year Ten next year. Personally I think we need even more but I'll take what I can get.

 Last year:

4 X 50 mins per week with all KS3-4

5 x 50 mins per week with KS5

 This year:

Same at KS5

Same at KS4

5 x 50 mins per week with KS3 BUT split between up to 3 teachers and 1 or more teachers not a specialist English teacher.

Next year:

Promised 5 x 50 for KS4 as well

BUT we're getting:

KS4 still 4x50

Years 8-9 4 x 50

Year 7 5 x 50

And all groups except year 10 and 11 will then be fully mixed ability :-(

We have three hours a week for KS3. There's talk of putting it down to 2.5 for Year 9 - dead against that.

6 at KS4?! 8 for us. I think anything less is foolish: our argument is that it comprises of two GCSEs. Our time is 7 at KS3, but we have to fight for the seventh hour every year for a dedicated library lesson.

You are all so lucky. We have a miserable 5 hours per fortnight at KS3 and 3 hours at KS4. No KS5 here.

I hate it. Nothing gets done properly. The timetable is so unbalanced; in week 2 I only see some classes once. Disgraceful

This may be of interest from TES FAQ - it only gives guidance for KS1-3 though:

http://sites.google.com/site/tesfaqs/timetable

We have 8 hrs/fortnight KS3 and will be getting the same from Sept for KS4.

We have four 50 minute periods a week with KS3, five 50s a week with KS4 (although they have a PSHE period every other week) and six 50s a week with KS5. I'll be honest, Year 11 five times a week is a bit draining...

3 X 1 hour lessons per week for both KS3 and KS4.

 

Don't think it's quite enough, but then I wouldn't want to see my year 11s (or year 9s) more anyway!

 My school is thinking of having English Lit GSCE as an option, and doing a combined English (AQA) GCSE for the majority at the end of year 10, so not sure what that will do to teaching hours. 

Malu

 My school is thinking of having English Lit GSCE as an option, and doing a combined English (AQA) GCSE for the majority at the end of year 10

 

Not sure what you mean by 'combined English'.

However, if you choose just English, you can't do Lit from the same board in the same academic year - though you could do Lit from a different board, of course. 

Crikey. I'm not sure I'd like my kids to go to a place where they have so few English lessons. Mine are both in KS3 and have six hours a fortnight. There's no transition time, so it's actually less than that by the time the lessons start. At KS4 it will be eight hours a fortnight.

In the school in which I teach, KS3 have six hours, forty minutes a fortnight, and KS4 have ten hours a fortnight.

Like Facetious says, teaching in a place that only allows 6 hours at KS4 is a drawback. That's a breakneck pace. I presume, too, you have students out at the end of terms, too?

Sometimes schools can be persuaded to change their time timetables on the basis of an informal hierarchy. That's the only reason I can think to English being given such little time.

We have three and a half hours per week in KS4 and it is not really enough imo. The timetable is going over to a fortnightly one next year though, and I am hoping for more time.

[edited by: figgins at 13:57 (GMT 0) on 16-1-2012]

We have three 45 minute lessons a week for all year groups (11-16 school). There is no transition time between lessons, so it often works out to be less than that.

I wish I was joking.

We complained that this was inadequate, especially for KS4, and were told that we could drop Lit if we liked.

Needless to say, we didn't...

[edited by: CandysDog at 13:51 (GMT 0) on 28-4-2012]

Looking through, I think my school has the record!

The really depressing thing is that it's been like this for years. We used to have four lessons a week for KS4 in the olden days. I never actually understood why it was reduced.

[edited by: CandysDog at 13:55 (GMT 0) on 28-4-2012]

HoD has been fighting our corner since I first posted and I think KS3 is going up. Less sure about KS4, though. We have a number of 10s and 11s that go to college one or two days a week and all the core subjects have to be fitted round that. 

gruoch

We have a number of 10s and 11s that go to college one or two days a week and all the core subjects have to be fitted round that. 

 

Can you hear me laughing mirthlessly?  We have the same issue, except the timetable is fitted around precisely nothing.  College on Weds means they miss English on Weds.  One out of four isn't too bad, but last year, college was on Friday - we had 2 out of our 4 lessons on Fridays.  When we raised this as a possible reason why some students hadn't done very well, we were told to stop making excuses!

You couldn't make it up.

We have fought tooth and nail, and have gone up considerably, so that next year we will have

 4x50 per week - Y11 (as is our current allocation across KS4 which has been impossible under the new CA regime)

6x50 per week - Most of Y10 with the exception of those in the triple science option stream who will have 5

7x50 per fortnight - Y9

8x50 per fortnight - Y7+8 except for the nurture group who will get 10.

 

I feel very smug saying this, and my heart goes out to those of you with your insanely low allocations. How on earth do SMT expect you get the grades they so desperately need for their league tables if you only have 3 periods a week to teach people to write words in sentences (never mind a whole book).  

We have 5 hours a fortnight key stage 3, 6 hours a fortnight key stage 4 (except college groups who have 5 hours a fortnight), 4 hours a fortnight year 12 and 5 hours a fortnight year 13.

Suits me.